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Cisco Feature Navigator is a site which allows you to search for the Cisco IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR, CAT OS and NX-OS software releases for the features which you want to run on your network. Here, you can conduct the search based on feature which you want to seek the support, search by software, platform, Image and product code. We can also compare the two software images to find the difference of features between both.

From the Home Page of Feature Navigator, click on Research Features (Search by Feature/Technology) as shown below:

Search by Feature/Technology can be used to search feature support/ technology support for the release or platform it is supported, license set/Supervisor(NX-OS) in which it is supported and images which supports in it.

On Clicking of Search by Feature/Technology icon as shown above, the home page would take you to a new page wherein you would need to key in some parameters before it could provide you the desired results.

Search by Feature can be used to search the feature support for the release or platform it is supported. Search by feature also gives you information regarding the license sets/Supervisor(NX-OS specific) and images which supports on a particular feature.

To search using Feature as parameter, you would need to click on the radio button Feature. The default choice for the screen would be Feature only. A user can select maximum number of 20 features and minimum of 1 feature.

You can enter the partial name of the feature in the text box provided and click on the Filter Icon as shown in the screenshot below.

New Live Search:Now you have an option to even search for features with key letters in the filtered feature list as shown in below screenshot, the letters would be highlighted in yellow as you start keying in the search letters (screenshot below), you can navigate to next feature which contains the search string by clicking the “>” symbol or go to previous feature by clicking on "

You can also search by scrolling down to the feature you need information for and adding it to selected features list.

You can remove the highlighted letters by simply deleting the search string, also the filtered features can be reverted back to the complete feature content by clicking on the Remove Filter button as pointed in the below screenshot, this would bring back to the Feature search screen with the key letters provided earlier to filter the features.

The Search results would span across multiple pages if it exceeds more than 500 line of information as shown below. However you can click on Download Excel button to get the entire results in a single excel sheet.

This option gets enabled when an image is selected. You can click on the View Image Details button next to Clear Filter Data (bottom right of search result window) which will open a new window with all the supported features in that image along with License required, Technology the feature belong to and Package Name if any. There are also links to View MIBs, Release Notes, and Image Download etc. which can provide more information. You can also view the Feature Description by selecting the feature and click on View Desc button. The options like “Sorting”, “Column Selection”, “Grouping”, and Filter explained below will also work in image detail window.

The Platform tab will have the OS information which supports the selected features. Double click on the OS or single click on the triangle mark to expand the platform supported for the respective OS. Selecting the platform will display the fourth window with output including Release information, Life Cycle (type of release), Platform information, Feature Set License/Supervisor(NX-OS specifc), Min DRAM required, Min Flash required, orderable flag along with the image name. The options like “Sorting”, “Column Selection”, “Grouping”, “Filter” “View Image Detail” and “Compare image” explained earlier will also work for the Platform search.

ii) The Train Release tab will have the OS information which supports the selected features. You can double click on the OS or single click on the triangle mark to expand the Major release information for the respective OS. The tree will expand to list the release number information. Select the release number to get the output containing Release information, Life Cycle (type of release), Platform information, Feature Set License/Supervisor(NX-OS specific), Min DRAM required, Min Flash required, orderable flag along with the image name. Also you have other options listed below to help you obtain information much easier and faster with minute details.

Search by Technology can be used to search the features which will be supported on a specific technology. This search allows you to find the features which are supported on a specific technology which you are looking for. To Search using Technology as parameter, you would be required to click on the radio button Technology.

The icon of the “folder” given in the screenshot shows the Major Technology, which when clicked will again divide into many sub- technologies which are supported on that technology. When you click on the sub-category, you will be able to find the list of features which are supported on the given technology.

Select the feature for which you were looking the information. Once the feature is selected, click on Add button. The continue button will get enabled when at least one feature is in the selected features box and gets disabled if no features or more than 20 features are in selected features. Click continue button to enable the third window as shown below with the release and platform information.

Once you click on some release for which you need information, fourth window will be enabled where you will have the Release, Life Cycle, EoL info Avl, Platform, Feature Set/ License OR Supervisor(NX-OS specific), DRAM, Flash, Orderable and Image information.

Search by Software can be used to search the release and find the features which are supported for it. In the Search by Software page, you can search by Release which is the default choice. You can also Search by Platform, Image name and Product Code all in a single page.

Software type is a mandatory field in this page. You have to select Software type either as IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR, CAT OS and NX-OS based on your requirement. When you select the Software type, Major Release will get activated. Once Major release is selected, Release, platform and FeatSet/License OR Supervisor(NX-OS specific) will be activated and you would need to select the value for each based on your requirement.

Once the appropriate parameters are selected you would be provided with the Image Name, Product Code, DRAM /Min Flash information for the selected Release and License set as shown in the above screenshot. The resultant feature and technology information which would be supported on the combination of release, platform and feature set will be available as shown below.

This is used when you want to download a specific image. When you click on image with Software advisory, you will be directed to a Software Advisory Notice following which you will be able to download the image required.

To Search by platform, you would require clicking on Radio button Platform and entering the essential parameters for the search to be conducted.

Once the Platform, Major release, Release and FeatSet/License OR Supervisor(NX-OS specific) information is selected as per your requirement, you will be able to view the features supporting on the given Platform based on your criteria.

For searching by image name, you would need to click on the Radio button Image Name which will enable only the Image Name text box.

You would need to enter the Image name in the text box given and click on Search for Image(s), which will provide you with the results consisting of Release, Life Cycle, EOL info Avl (End of Life Info Available), Platform, FeatSet/License OR Supervisor, DRAM, Flash, Orderable, and Image.

For performing a Search by Product code, you would require to click on the Radio button Product Code. Once the product code is selected, only the Product Code text box with be enabled, wherein you will be required to enter the Product Code information and click on Search for Image(s). The result will be as given in the below screenshot.

After Clicking on Search for Image(s), the result consists of Release, Life Cycle, EOL Info Avl, Platform, FeatSet/ License OR Supervisor, DRAM, Flash, Orderable, Image as shown below.

You can use the Filter option by clicking the heading “Features”, “Licenses”, “Technology” or “Package Name” inverted triangle button at the end of the column selected. The filter option is not case sensitive. It filters the data for entire list of features including the features listed in different pages. The filter can be revoked by clicking on the Clear Filter button which will remove any filters applied previously or by un-checking the Filter box. You can select the required column or sort data also using the same steps.

Compare Image is a category in Cisco Feature Navigator, which can be used to compare between two images for the Unique and common features among them. This feature will help not only in comparing, it also helps when you need to upgrade from one image to other and find what new features you would get or what features will be dropped. This will help a lot in decision making for software upgrades.

From the Home Page of Feature Navigator (screenshot shown below) click on Compare Image:

This would take you to a new screen shown below and would require you to select few parameters before it can provide you the results.

The parameters which needs to be selected from the drop down list for both Image to compare are
1) Software
2) Major Release
3) Release
4) Platform
5) FeatSet/License OR Supervisor(NX-OS Specific)

Once the appropriate parameters are selected you would be provided with the Image Name, Product Code, DRAM and Min Flash information for the selected FeatSet/License OR Supervisor as shown in the above screenshot. The resultant feature information like Unique Features in the individual images (first image and second image) if any, would be displayed along with the Common features as shown below.

The User can Compare Images either by Compare By Feat Set/License OR Supervisor or Compare by Platform by selecting the appropriate radio button as highlighted below.

When comparing between two platforms, you would not only get feature details which are unique and common at the platform level, you would also get the associated feature Set/ License OR Supervisor(NX-OS specific) information for the respective features. The feature set License information window is populated on double clicking the feature as displayed below.

You can use the Filter option by clicking the heading “Features” or “Additional Licenses” inverted triangle button at the end of the column selected. The filter option is not case sensitive. It filters the data for entire list of features including the features listed in different pages. Filter can be applied independently to the three windows (Feature unique to First Image, Feature Unique to Second Image, Common Features). The filter can be revoked by clicking on the Clear Filter button which will remove any filters applied previously or by un-checking the Filter box. You can select the required column or sort data also using the same steps.

You also have options to View Description of a feature by selecting the feature and click on View Desc button next to Clear Filter.

You would be directed to respective sites when you click the respective links like “View MIBs”, “Release Notes”,” Image Download” etc which would provide more detailed information.

Currently and by default the features are listed in different pages limiting the feature list to 500 Features per page. This option can be modified to single page display with a delay in generating the feature list by clicking on the “Show Results in One Page” button on the top right hand corner of the Features window as shown below. The same can be revoked back to Pagination to improve the performance by clicking on “Show Results In Pagination” button.

When we click on Show Results in One Page, the result will be entirely shown in a page.

You can also download the results shown in the window into an excel sheet with the list of Unique feature for first image, second image and common Features along with the Additional Licenses and Feature Set/Licenses information by clicking on the “Download To Excel” button next to Show Results In One Page/Show Results In Pagination” toggle button. The maximum limit for download is 1500 and hence, the user should narrow down the search in order to download.

Here you will need to provide the platform name, Major release and Image name for which you are seeking EoL for and Click on Show details. Once you enter the required information, to the right side of your screen, you will be able to see the EoL information for the image which you have selected. The result will consist of Image name, Product Id, End of Sales Date(EoS), Last Date of Support, End of Software Maintenance release date(EoL), End of Vulnerability/ Security Support and Product bulletin ID.

You will require entering the image name for which you would need to know EoL information and click on Show Details. Below Screenshot will help you to understand the same.

The result will consist of Image name, Product Id, End of Sales Date(EoS), Last Date of Support, End of Software Maintenance release date(EoL), End of Vulnerability/ Security Support and Product bulletin ID

You can customize by selecting the column displayed in the search results, this can be achieved by clicking the arrow which appears against any column title like “Release”, “Life Cycle”, “Platform”, “Feature Set/License”, “DRAM’, “Flash”, “Orderable”, “Image” etc. and select Columns which would list the column title. Select the columns you would need in your Search Result this would provide the information for that column selected.

Download Excel allows you to download the list of features given in an Excel sheet format. The maximum limit for download is 1500 and hence, the user should narrow down the search in order to download.